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Congressmen in Peru Show More Support for Aid from Venezuela

(LIP-ir) -- Nationalist congressman, Daniel Abugattas, spoke in defense of the the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America (ALBA) today. ALBA, an agreement proposed by Venezuela as an alternative to agreements with the U.S., has gained more support in Peru.

Due to the support ALBA has received, an office (called the ALBA house) has been opened in Puno.

A humanitarian aid program, Mision Milagro, which has helped hundreds of Peruvians by performing free eye surgery, has been put into effect in Loreto and Cajamarca. These are some of the new benefits the Venezuelan government is providing people in Peru.

Daniel Abugattas stated that people that oppose ALBA "are creating a storm in a glass of water." Abugattas asked Andina News Agency, "What is so bad about solidarity, ALBA in Peru, Mision Milagros and other activities that are exclusively social aid, there isn't any type of political participation there."

Abugattas added that it was beyond comprehension how agencies in Peru could receive help from the U.S. with joy and turn away Venezuelan solidarity.

"Why is U.S. aid good and Venezuelan aid bad?", asked Abugattas.

- related articles -
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	Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to Open More Programs and Offices in Peru (by LIP, Aug 9, 2007)
	Bolivia's President Criticizes Peru & Promotes Chavez During Stay (by LIP, Aug 2, 2007)
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# americorps says :
11 August, 2007 [ 09:00 ]

I hope these congressmen loose their jobs next election.

I do not have a problem being anti-Bush, I think my country is a disaster in foriegn and domestic policies right now, but only a fool would think Chavez is some sort of hero or saint.

I am an American, but I am as far left as they come....but just being left does not mean one is a good leader...

Chavez is evel, foolish, and stupid. He is as bad if not worse than Bush.

# souza says :
11 August, 2007 [ 19:31 ]

Bush and Chavez are a couple of idiots.

# Carlos Bagati says :
13 August, 2007 [ 13:29 ]

I can answer Mr. Abugattas question for him in regards to what is wrong with aid from Chavez. One answer. Communism. The reason for the over flowing amount of love that Chavez has for Peru is so he can undermine Peru in the long run. We remember communism with examples like the Shining Path. And this is a path that we Peruvians do not wish too ever take again. The picture of Hugo, Ollanta, & Evo all standing together that was posted a few days ago, should be posted for a long time on Livivg In Peru. It is a picture that represents the three headed communist serpent that will rain death & distruction upon all freedom loving people everywhere in South America unless we can put a stop to it. Ask RCTV the love and support that Mr. Chavez has for them. Ask all the people, some estimate as many as 1,000, who worked at all of the McDonald's through out Venezuela that were odered closed down and no longer have jobs. The outlawed dollar currency. Rampant crime in the streets of Caracas. Too prevent myself from writing a book; I will just say that Mr. Chavez is a man of pure evil. Ollanta is no better. And people like Mr. Abugattas are in the pockets of Chavez.

# Gabriel says :
13 August, 2007 [ 20:27 ]

 I watch very closed Chavez business in getting involved in other countries problems.  He can't fix his own problems and is stealing
huge amounts of money and doing nothing for the poor people.  I want Mr. Abugattas to tell me in the past 8 years of goverment in Venezuela if he think that venezuela is better or worse.  The entire world knows that Venezuela is in very bad shape they don't even have meat, eggs etc. to eat.  Venezuela should be like Kuwait with all the oil and everybody well off.  Alan said ones that Chavez gets a year 70 billion dollars from the oil where the money end up.  Maybe in Cuba !!  Mr. Abugattas should move to Venezuela and regarding the surgeries for the people I believed if Alan could asked the american goverment for help The Drs. will go to Peru to help the peruvian people and they don't need to wear red clothing.   

# Amigo del Peru says :
14 August, 2007 [ 06:31 ]

Gabriel, with all respect, Venezuela is NOT in "a very bad shape". That is propaganda. Even the World Bank, an enemy of the Chavez administration, says that Venezuela has made "significant progress in the fight against poverty". All the studies that measure poverty in Venezuela show big improvements,
in some studies the poverty rate has dropped below 30%.

(In 1998, the poverty rate was somewhere between 48%-70%.) Unemployment is about half of when Chavez came to power, )the minimum salary has surpassed the one in Chile and second in Latin America, only behind Costa Rica. Serious media outlets, including U.S. news papers that are generally sceptical about Chavez such as The New York Times and Washington Post, has run stories about the "shopping spree" and the amazing economic boom in Venezuela. Growth was 17% in 2004 (recuperation after


 the oil sabotage in 2003), and has been 7-10% ever since with a figure
over 7% expected also for this year.

The most amazing thing, still, is that so few people write about the
STRUCTURAL changes going on in Venezuela. Venezuela is going from a oil economy towards a economy based not only on oil but also industry and knowledge. There are massive programs in infrastructure, education, health, culture (look at "El Sistema", 250.000 young kids from poor neighbourhoods all over the country are practicing classical music four hours a day - something that is turning Venezuela into a global power in classical music...), as well as industrialization. They're doing stuff for the enviroment, like building bigger 
and better metro services in the three biggest cities and constructing train lines between all mayor cities. Venezuela will be planting 100 million trees in the coming 5 years. Last year they substituted 52 million light bulbs. And at the same time as doing all this Venezuela is helping 14 poor countries (through PetroCaribe) with cheap oil, financing Mission Miracle (6 million latinamericans will get their sight back) and educating 200.000 new doctors (10.000 are from Bolivia, dunno how many are from Peru). This is not saying that everything in Venezuela is perfect, far from it, but it's definately on the right track. It is not without a reason that so many countries (Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, to a certain extent Argentina, Uruguay and maybe Honduras now) are trying to imitate the
venezuelan experience. It wouldn't surprise me if neoliberalism collapses
also in Colombia and Peru in the coming years...

# Amigo del Peru says :
14 August, 2007 [ 06:41 ]

Another example of the anti-Venezuela propaganda - the story about a mayor tv station in Venezuela having been "closed" turns out to be nothing more than a FRAUD. Why are all these stories being made up? Who is afraid of Venezuelas example? Latin Americas powerful? The US?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/eyes-wide-shut-the-inter_b_60256.html

# Carlos Bagati says :
14 August, 2007 [ 09:19 ]

Friend of Peru. Your pro Communist Propaganda will not work here. Communism is Communism. As one lady pointed out in regards to water rationing here in Peru. She said that she would ask for water 10 times if that is what it would take to keep from living under Communism. To be told what to think, speak, wear, & to live life in general under a Communist system. In regards to RCTV? If this is not the truth, then why is it reported all over the world, and not just America? America does not control all the media outlets all over the world. And it does not control Peru 21.

# Amigo del Peru says :
14 August, 2007 [ 09:50 ]

I'm also against totalitarian systems, either its' communist fundamentalism or market fundamentalism that excludes the poor as in big parts of Latin-America. But I strongly doubt that Venezuela is moving towards totalitarism. In fact, it seems to be moving away from this. Few people even remember when anti-neoliberal protesters where massacred in thousands during the Caracazo. Two really similar parties controlled Venezuela through a corrupt pact (Punto Fijo) for more than fourty years. Is that democracy? Now Venezuela has a government that is taking human rights seriously - although it is far from perfect.

 As the Insulza, the boss of the Organisation of American States says, "democracy is very much alive in Venezuela". Whilst in Peru all mayor newspapers seem to be against Chavez and socialism, in Venezuela there is a wide range of newspapers and tv stations ranging from media advocating radical socialism to far right wing media. Any tourist can see this. The spanish president Zapatero was also really surprised a few years ago when he visited Venezuela, and commented on the amazing diversity of opinions in venezuelan media. I have personally not heard about such plurality of opinions in any Latin American country, and certainly not in Peru where they censor a art expositions and where three local radio stations was recently closed for having asked critical questions about the murder of a political activist. (A notice that produced small manifestations in Peru but was not mentioned anywhere else in the world, whilst the world is still talking about RCTV...)

You ask a important question; "if this is not the truth (the story about RCTV being closed), then why is it reported all over the world"? I've asked myself the same question. But if you are not sure whether I'm telling you the truth, you can ask any venezuelan (there are 25 millions). RCTV can be seen on cable and satelite, which 30% of the population has legally, and a lot more people have illegal accesses. It can also be seen on Internet, which the government is promoting actively.

One reason for the lack of true information about this is the general lack of decent, investigative journalism in our times. Journalists read a story saying that RCTV have been closed and instinctively they think that this is a bad thing (and if it had been true, it would have been a very bad thing indeed!), after all, it would be an assault on media freedoms and as journalists this is something that concerns them, so they feel obligated to publishing the story in solidarity with Venezuelan journalists. Instinctively they repeat the same story without checking their sources.

Another reason for the one sided media coverage is that most information in the world passed by one of two mayor western distributors of news which seem to share the same opinions on many of these issues. Most newspapers use the same sources, as most cannot afford to have an correspondent in each country of the world. In the case of Peru 21 it's mostly a good newspaper, but it is certainly not "objective" when it comes to commenting on venezuelan politics, as no media are. If I'm not mistaken it is owned by the same media group as El Comercio which is a mayor group with interests in big parts of Latin America, and that has been sceptical of Chavez for a long time. However, I think the main reason why it is so critical is because of lack of information.

Press freedom in Venezuela amazes people who visit the country. Tv commentators say the worst things you can imagine about the president, openly and all of the time. There is a lot of RADICAL opposition to the government in the press and this has been going on for 8 years. The total number of radio stations in Venezuela has doubled from about 300 to 600 during the Chavez government, number of tv stations has gone from 30 to 80 and so on. The government is building free Internet cafées in the poor areas as they say that the right to inform yourself and to be informed are basic rights. More than 70% of national media are against the president, even if most of the population supports him.

With Perus history in mind I can understand that a lot of people have very bad feelings for someone that is described as a communist by the press. However, there are different types of communism (in Italy, the communists are in government, and they favour  private enterprice, mixed economy, multi party system and freedom of speech. In France the communist party is also very liberal, as in many other countries). And Chavez has even said explicitely that he is not a communist! I find it very unlikely that Venezuela turns into "a new Cuba", it seems more likely from the evidence that we have that Venezuela is the one influencing the situation in Cuba at the moment... if you look at the reforms they are undertaking they have more in comparison with nordic social democracy.

I suggest you have a look at
http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/

I appreciate your feedback and think it is always good to be critical. But the stuff about RCTV, just as many other stories going on about Venezuela, are simply not true. Why isn't anyone saying that the RCTV staff participated before and duringthe fascist coup in Venezuela in 2002, published false footage saying Chavez had resigned and a manipulated video that supposedly showed Chavez loyal troops shooting at political manifestators? Because it doesn't fit in - we want to demonize Chavez. With a common enemy everything is easier, we don't even have to think...

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